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At least 523 records · Page 29

Progress of a Cross-Correlation Based Optical Strain Measurement Technique for Detecting Radial Growth on a Rotating Disk

The Aeronautical Sciences Project under NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program is interested in the development of novel measurement technologies, such as optical surface measurements for the in situ health monitoring of critical constituents of the internal flow path. In situ health monitoring has the potential to detect flaws, i.e. cracks in key components, such as engine turbine disks, before the flaws lead to catastrophic failure. The present study, aims to further validate and develop an optical strain measurement technique to measure the radial growth and strain field of an already cracked disk, mimicking the geometry of a sub-scale turbine engine disk, under loaded conditions in the NASA Glenn Research Center's High Precision Rotordynamics Laboratory. The technique offers potential fault detection by imaging an applied high-contrast random speckle pattern under unloaded and loaded conditions with a CCD camera. Spinning the cracked disk at high speeds (loaded conditions) induces an external load, resulting in a radial growth of the disk of approximately 50.0-μm in the flawed region and hence, a localized strain field. When imaging the cracked disk under static conditions, the disk will be undistorted; however, during rotation the cracked region will grow radially, thus causing the applied particle pattern to be 'shifted'. The resulting particle displacements between the two images is measured using the two-dimensional cross-correlation algorithms implemented in standard Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) software to track the disk growth, which facilitates calculation of the localized strain field. A random particle distribution is adhered onto the surface of the cracked disk and two bench top experiments are carried out to evaluate the technique's ability to measure the induced particle displacements. The disk is shifted manually using a translation stage equipped with a fine micrometer and a hotplate is used to induce thermal growth of the disk, causing the particles to become shifted. For both experiments, reference and test images are acquired before and after the induced shifts, respectively, and then processed using PIV software. The controlled manual translation of the disk resulted in detection of the particle displacements accurate to ~1.75% of full scale and the thermal expansion experiment resulted in successful detection of the disk's thermal growth as compared to the calculated thermal expansion results. After validation of the technique through the induced shift experiments, the technique is implemented in the Rotordynamics Lab for preliminary assessment in a simulated engine environment. The discussion of the findings and plans for future work to improve upon the results are addressed in the paper.

rotordynamics↗

Effect of inlet temperature and pressure on emissions from a premixing gas turbine primary zone combustor

Experiments were conducted to determine the performance of a premixing prevaporizing gas turbine primary zone combustor design over a range of combustor inlet temperatures from 700 to 1000 K and a range of inlet pressures from 40 to 240 N/sq cm. The 1 meter long combustor could be operated at pressures up to and including 120 N/sq cm without autoignition in the premixing duct or flashback from the stabilized combustion zone. Autoignition occurred in the mixer tube at the 240 N/sq cm pressure level with an entrance temperature of 830 K and a mixer residence time of 4 msec. Measured NOx level, combustion inefficiency, and hydrocarbon emission index correlated well with adiabatic flame temperature. The NOx levels varied from approximately 0.2 to 2.0 g NO2/kg fuel at combustion inefficiencies from 4 to 0.04 percent, depending upon adiabatic flame temperature and pressure. Measured NOx levels were sensitive to pressure. Tests were made at equivalence ratios ranging from 0.35 to 0.65. The overall total pressure drop for the configuration varied slightly with reference velocity and equivalence ratio, but never exceeded 3 percent.

Roffe, G.↗

Some issues on modeling atmospheric turbulence experienced by helicopter rotor blades

The atmospheric turbulence velocities seen by nonrotating aircraft components and rotating blades can be substantially different. The differences are due to the spatial motion of the rotor blades, which move fore and aft through the gust waves. Body-fixed atmospheric turbulence refers to the actual atmospheric turbulence experienced by a point fixed on a nonrotating aircraft component such as the aircraft's center of gravity or the rotor hub, while blade-fixed atmospheric turbulence refers to the atmospheric turbulence experienced by an element of the rotating rotor blade. An example is presented, which, though overly simplified, shows important differences between blade- and body-fixed rotorcraft atmospheric turbulence models. All of the information necessary to develop the dynamic equations describing the atmospheric turbulence velocity field experienced by an aircraft is contained in the atmospheric turbulence velocity correlation matrix. It is for this reason that a generalized formulation of the correlation matrix describing atmospheric turbulence that a rotating blade encounters is developed. From this correlation matrix, earlier treated cases restricted to a rotor flying straight and level directly into the mean wind can be recovered as special cases.

Costello, Mark↗

Correlation between magnetic and electric field perturbations in the field-aligned current regions deduced from DE 2 observations

The satellite-observed high correlations between magnetic and electric field perturbations in the high-latitude field-aligned current regions are investigated by examining the dependence of the relationship between Delta-B and E on spatial scale, using the electric and magnetic field data obtained by DE 2 in the polar regions. The results are compared with the Pedersen conductivity inferred from the international reference ionosphere model and the Alfven wave velocity calculated from the in situ ion density and magnetic field measurements.

Ishii, M.↗

Does the scatterometer see wind speed or friction velocity?

Studies of radar backscatter from the sea surface are referred either to the wind speed, U, or friction velocity, u(sub *). Bragg scattering theory suggests that these variations in backscatter are directly related to the height of the capillary-gravity waves modulated by the larger waves in tilt and by straining of the short wave field. The question then arises as to what characteristic of the wind field is most probably correlated with the wave number spectrum of the capillary-gravity waves. The justification for selecting U as the appropriate meteorological parameter to be associated with backscatter from L-band to Ku-band are reviewed. Both theoretical reasons and experimental evidence are used to demonstrate that the dominant parameter is U/C(lambda) where U is the wind speed at a height of about lambda/2 for waves having a phase speed of C(lambda).

Donelan, M. A.↗

Additive evaluation criteria for aircraft noise

The occurrence of unexpected aircraft noise events will frequently evoke intense complaints about annoyance over such events. It is recognized that the relationship between the volume of complaints and the corresponding maximum noise levels does in fact depend on the circumstances of the complainants and the time of year. The frequency of occurrence of the respective noise events is also a factor. The possible practical value of the addition of the maximal noise level, to the well-known cumulative noise descriptors L(sub eq), L(sub dn), etc. may be considered. One might start by considering the difference between the L(sub eq) and the average maximal noise level of the twenty loudest single noise events on an average day. A somewhat less sharply focused consideration of the maximum noise levels was adopted. In that standard the scope of noise-mitigation measures is defined generally with reference to L(sub eq). If the average maximal noise level L(sub max) of the entire aircraft fleet mix exceeds the L(sub eq) by more than 20 dB(A) and if more than 20 daily aircraft noise events exceed the L(sub eq) than the difference L(sub max)-20 becomes the key criterion for noise-mitigation measures. A statistical correlation of a large number of data from aircraft-noise-monitoring sensors located both directly underneath and laterally disposed to an aircraft flight-path has supplied a basis for the determination of the distribution of the maximal noise levels about the average value, L(sub max), of each type of aircraft. This distribution is given for the takeoff climb and for the landing approach.

Meyer, Thomas J.↗

Understanding of Jupiter's Atmosphere After the Galileo Probe Entry

Instruments on the Galileo probe measured composition, cloud properties, thermal structure. winds, radiative energy balance, and electrical properties of the Jovian atmosphere. As expected the probe results confirm some expectations about Jupiter's atmosphere, refute others, and raise new questions which still remain unanswered. This talk will concentrate on those aspects of the probe observations which either raised new questions or remain unresolved. The Galileo probe observations of composition and clouds provided some of the biggest surprises of the mission. Helium abundance measured by the probe differed significantly from the remote sensing derivations from Voyager. discrepancy between the Voyager helium abundance determinations for Jupiter and the Galileo probe value have now led to a considerably increased helium determination for Saturn. Global abundance of N in the form of ammonia was observed to be supersolar by approximately the same factor as carbon, in contrast to expectations that C/N would be significantly larger than solar. This has implications for the formation and evolution of Jupiter. The cloud structure was not what was generally anticipated, even though most previous remote sensing results below the uppermost cloud referred to 5 micron hot spots, local regions with reduced cloud opacity. The Galileo probe descended in one of these hot spots. Only a tenuous, presumed ammonium hydrosulfide, cloud was detected, and no significant water cloud or super-solar water abundance was measured. The mixing ratios as a function of depth for the condensibles ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water, exhibited no apparent correlation with either condensation levels or with each other, an observation that is still a puzzle, although there are now dynamical models of hot spots which show promise in being able to explain such behavior. Probe tracked zonal winds show that wind magnitude increases with depth to pressures of about 4 bars, with the winds extending to at least as deep as the probe made measurements, 22 bars. Models of hot spot dynamics raise the possibility that the variation with depth of the probe measured zonal winds between 0.4 and 4 bars reflect the dynamics of the hot spot rather than the global wind pattern. Galileo upper atmosphere measurements established that there is a sharp temperature rise with altitude between about 350 and 800 km above the 1 bar pressure level, with the upper atmosphere reaching, temperatures near 900 K. The energy sources for this upper atmosphere heating are not clearly established, but various mechanisms have been proposed. These and other aspects of the Galileo probe data will be discussed.

Young, Richard E.↗

Performance of a Model Rich Burn-quick Mix-lean Burn Combustor at Elevated Temperature and Pressure

As interest in pollutant emission from stationary and aero-engine gas turbines increases, combustor engineers must consider various configurations. One configuration of increasing interest is the staged, rich burn - quick mix - lean burn (RQL) combustor. This report summarizes an investigation conducted in a recently developed high pressure gas turbine combustor facility. The model RQL combustor was plenum fed and modular in design. The fuel used for this study is Jet-A which was injected from a simplex atomizer. Emission (CO2, CO, O2, UHC, NOx) measurements were obtained using a stationary exit plane water-cooled probe and a traversing water-cooled probe which sampled from the rich zone exit and the lean zone entrance. The RQL combustor was operated at inlet temperatures ranging from 367 to 700 K, pressures ranging from 200 to 1000 kPa, and combustor reference velocities ranging from 10 to 20 m/s. Variations were also made in the rich zone and lean zone equivalence ratios. Several significant trends were observed. NOx production increased with reaction temperature, lean zone equivalence ratio and residence time and decreased with increased rich zone equivalence ratio. NOx production in the model RQL combustor increased to the 0.4 power with increased pressure. This correlation, compared to those obtained for non-staged combustors (0.5 to 0.7), suggests a reduced dependence on NOx on pressure for staged combustors. Emissions profiles suggest that rich zone mixing is not uniform and that the rich zone contributes on the order of 16 percent to the total NOx produced.

Peterson, Christopher O.↗

Understanding of Jupiter's Atmosphere after the Galileo Probe Entry

Instruments on the Galileo probe measured composition, cloud properties, thermal structure, winds, radiative energy balance, and electrical properties of the Jovian atmosphere. As expected the probe results confirm some expectations about Jupiter's atmosphere, refute others, and raise new questions which still remain unanswered. This talk will concentrate on those aspects of the probe observations which either raised new questions or remain unresolved. The Galileo probe observations of composition and clouds provided some of the biggest surprises of the mission. Helium abundance measured by the probe differed significantly from the remote sensing derivations from Voyager. Discrepancy between the Voyager helium abundance determinations for Jupiter and the Galileo probe value have now led to a considerably increased helium determination for Saturn. Global abundance of N in the form of ammonia was observed to be super-solar by approximately the same factor as carbon, in contrast to expectations that C/N would be significantly larger than solar. This has implications for the formation and evolution of Jupiter. The cloud structure was not what was generally anticipated, even though most previous remote sensing results below the uppermost cloud referred to 5 micron hot spots, local regions with reduced cloud opacity. The Galileo probe descended in one of these hot spots. Only a tenuous, presumed ammomium hydrosulfide, cloud was detected, and no significant water cloud or super-solar water abundance was measured. The mixing ratios as a function of depth for the condensibles ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water, exhibited no apparent correlation with either condensation levels or with each other, an observation that is still a puzzle, although there are now dynamical models of hot spots which show promise in being able to explain such behavior. Probe tracked zonal winds show that wind magnitude increases with depth to pressures of about 4 bars, with the winds extending to at least as deep as the probe made measurements, 22 bars. Models of hot spot dynamics raise the possibility that the variation with depth of the probe measured zonal winds between 0.4 and 4 bars reflect the dynamics of the hot spot rather than the global wind pattern. Galileo upper atmosphere measurements established that there is a sharp temperature rise with altitude between about 350 and 800 km above the 1 bar pressure level, with the upper atmosphere reaching temperatures near 900 K. The energy sources for this upper atmosphere heating are not clearly established, but various mechanisms have been proposed. These and other aspects of the Galileo probe data will be discussed.

Fonda, Mark↗

Test and Analysis of the 8-foot Diameter Cylindrical Sandwich Composite Test Article CTA8.2B: As part of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project

The buckling response of thin-walled cylindrical structures have long been shown to be sensitive to various imperfections. That is, imperfections related to load introduction, boundary conditions, material property variation, and geometric deviations can all contribute to experimentally obtained buckling loads being lower than the buckling loads predicted for perfect representations of the same thin-walled cylindrical structure. To account for the influence of geometry-based imperfections of a thin-walled cylindrical structure on buckling response, a design factor (also known as a buckling knockdown factor) is used during the design phase. Guidelines for buckling knockdown factors are readily available in NASA SP-8007, Buckling of Thin Walled Circular Cylinders, which was updated in 2020. Prior to this recent update, NASA SP-8007 had not been updated since 1969, and since that time, computational analysis, experimental testing, and manufacturing methods have significantly improved. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project (SBKF, NESC Assessment 07-010-E) had the goal of developing buckling design recommendations for select classes of metallic and composite launch-vehicle structures [3]. Specifically, the test and analysis results from the fourth SBKF composite test article SBKF-P3-CYL-CTA8.2B, which is referred to as CTA8.2B, are described in this paper. This test was the fourth in a series of four tests on sandwich composite cylinders that will be used to experimentally validate analysis methods, which in turn can be used to develop new analysis-based shell buckling design guidelines for typical sandwich composite launch vehicle cylindrical structures. Publications describing previous test validation with analysis are available in Refs. CTA8.2B was designed to occupy one corner of the design space with approximately equal bending stiffnesses in the axial and transverse directions and have a larger ratio of radius to effective shell thickness. Each test article had a unique design and was designed to occupy a specific region of the design space. CTA8.2B was an 8-foot diameter honeycomb-core sandwich cylinder that was fabricated and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The primary objectives of this test were to interrogate the structural capability of a composite test article, and to verify the test article design and analysis approach for cylinders subjected to axial compression and combined axial and bending loads. First, descriptions of the test article design and test are given in Section 2.0, and modeling and analysis methods used in support of the test article design and testing activities are described briefly in Section 3.0. Then, select test results are presented and compared to predicted results in Section 4.0, and concluding remarks are presented in Section 5.0. Finally, drawings of CTA8.2B and references used to support the test and analysis are provided in the Appendix.

Nonlinear analysis↗

A study of the application of differential techniques to the global positioning system for a helicopter precision approach

The results of a simulation study to define the functional characteristics of a airborne and ground reference GPS receiver for use in a Differential GPS system are doumented. The operations of a variety of receiver types (sequential-single channel, continuous multi-channel, etc.) are evaluated for a typical civil helicopter mission scenario. The math model of each receiver type incorporated representative system errors including intentional degradation. The results include the discussion of the receiver relative performance, the spatial correlative properties of individual range error sources, and the navigation algorithm used to smooth the position data.

Mccall, D. L.↗

Method of recertifying a loaded bearing member

A method is described of recertifying a loaded bearing member using ultrasound testing to compensate for different equipment configurations and temperature conditions. The standard frequency F1 of a reference block is determined via an ultrasonic tone burst generated by a first pulsed phased locked loop (P2L2) equipment configuration. Once a lock point number S is determined for F1, the reference frequency F1a of the reference block is determined at this lock point number via a second P2L2 equipment configuration to permit an equipment offset compensation factor Fo1=((F1-F1a)/F1)(1000000) to be determined. Next, a reference frequency F2 of the unloaded bearing member is determined using a second P2L2 equipment configuration and is then compensated for equipment offset errors via the relationship F2+F2(Fo1)/1000000. A lock point number b is also determined for F2. A resonant frequency F3 is determined for the reference block using a third P2L2 equipment configuration to determine a second offset compensation factor F02=((F1-F3)/F1) 1000000. Next the resonant frequency F4 of the loaded bearing member is measured at lock point number b via the third P2L2 equipment configuration and the bolt load determined by the relationship (-1000000)CI(((F2-F4)/F2)-Fo2), wherein CI is a factor correlating measured frequency shift to the applied load. Temperature compensation is also performed at each point in the process.

Allison, Sidney G.↗

Theoretical Study of the Low-Lying States of TiHe(+),TiNe(+),TiAr(+),VAr(+),CrHe(+),CrAr(+),FeHe(+),FeAr(+),CoHe(+),and CoAr(+)

The potential energy curves for the manifold of molecular states dissociating to the lowest transition metal ion states derived from the 3d(sup n+1) and 3d(sup n)4s(sup 1) occupations have been determined for selected transition-metal ion- rare gas systems. These curves have been computed using large basis sets, and the state-averaged complete- active-space self-consistent-field/multireference configuration interaction level of electron correlation treatment. In general, the families of curves derived from the 3d(sup n+1) and 3d(sup n)4s(sup 1) metal occupations are disjoint; however, for Ti(+) there is a strong mixing of the 3d(sup 2)4s(sup 1) and 3d(sup 3) asymptotes, because of the small separation between the asymptotes. This mixing leads to a failure of single-reference-based techniques; this is discussed in the context of our previous single-reference-based treatments.

Partridge, Harry↗

JPL VLBI Analysis Center IVS Annual Report for 2004

This report describes the activities of the JPL VLBI analysis center for the year 2004. We continue to be celestial reference frame, terrestrial reference frame, earth orientation, and spacecraft navigation work using the VLBI technique. There are several areas of our work that are undergoing active development. In 2004 we demonstrated 1 mm level troposphere calibration on an intercontinental baseline. We detected our first X/Ka (8.4/32 GHz) VLBI fringes. We began to deploy Mark 5 recorders and to interface the Mark 5 units to our software correlator. We also have actively participated in the international VLBI community through our involvement in six papers at the February IVS meeting and by collaborating on a number of projects such as densifying the S/X celestial frame creating celestial frames at K (24 GHz) and Q-bands ($# GHz)>

Jacobs, Chris↗

All-Sky Observational Evidence for An Inverse Correlation Between Dust Temperature and Emissivity Spectral Index

We show that a one-component variable-emissivity-spectral-index model (the free- model) provides more physically motivated estimates of dust temperature at the Galactic polar caps than one- or two-component fixed-emissivity-spectral-index models (fixed- models) for interstellar dust thermal emission at far-infrared and millimeter wavelengths. For the comparison we have fit all-sky one-component dust models with fixed or variable emissivity spectral index to a new and improved version of the 210-channel dust spectra from the COBE-FIRAS, the 100-240 micrometer maps from the COBE-DIRBE and the 94 GHz dust map from the WMAP. The best model, the free-alpha model, is well constrained by data at 60-3000 GHz over 86 per cent of the total sky area. It predicts dust temperature (T(sub dust)) to be 13.7-22.7 (plus or minus 1.3) K, the emissivity spectral index (alpha) to be 1.2-3.1 (plus or minus 0.3) and the optical depth (tau) to range 0.6-46 x 10(exp -5) with a 23 per cent uncertainty. Using these estimates, we present all-sky evidence for an inverse correlation between the emissivity spectral index and dust temperature, which fits the relation alpha = 1/(delta + omega (raised dot) T(sub dust) with delta = -.0.510 plus or minus 0.011 and omega = 0.059 plus or minus 0.001. This best model will be useful to cosmic microwave background experiments for removing foreground dust contamination and it can serve as an all-sky extended-frequency reference for future higher resolution dust models.

Liang, Z.↗

Evaluating Soil Moisture Retrievals from ESA's SMOS and NASA's SMAP Brightness Temperature Datasets

Two satellites are currently monitoring surface soil moisture (SM) using L-band observations: SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), a joint ESA (European Space Agency), CNES (Centre national d'tudes spatiales), and CDTI (the Spanish government agency with responsibility for space) satellite launched on November 2, 2009 and SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive), a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite successfully launched in January 2015. In this study, we used a multilinear regression approach to retrieve SM from SMAP data to create a global dataset of SM, which is consistent with SM data retrieved from SMOS. This was achieved by calibrating coefficients of the regression model using the CATDS (Centre Aval de Traitement des Donnes) SMOS Level 3 SM and the horizontally and vertically polarized brightness temperatures (TB) at 40 deg incidence angle, over the 2013 - 2014 period. Next, this model was applied to SMAP L3 TB data from Apr 2015 to Jul 2016. The retrieved SM from SMAP (referred to here as SMAP_Reg) was compared to: (i) the operational SMAP L3 SM (SMAP_SCA), retrieved using the baseline Single Channel retrieval Algorithm (SCA); and (ii) the operational SMOSL3 SM, derived from the multiangular inversion of the L-MEB model (L-MEB algorithm) (SMOSL3). This inter-comparison was made against in situ soil moisture measurements from more than 400 sites spread over the globe, which are used here as a reference soil moisture dataset. The in situ observations were obtained from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN; https:ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at) in North of America (PBO_H2O, SCAN, SNOTEL, iRON, and USCRN), in Australia (Oznet), Africa (DAHRA), and in Europe (REMEDHUS, SMOSMANIA, FMI, and RSMN). The agreement was analyzed in terms of four classical statistical criteria: Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE),Bias, Unbiased RMSE (UnbRMSE), and correlation coefficient (R). Results of the comparison of these various products with in situ observations show that the performance of both SMAP products i.e. SMAP_SCA and SMAP_Reg is 48 similar and marginally better to that of the SMOSL3 product particularly over the PBO_H2O, SCAN, and USCRN sites. However, SMOSL3 SM was closer to the in situ observations over the DAHRA and Oznet sites. We found that the correlation between all three datasets and in situ measurements is best (R 0.80) over the Oznet sites and worst (R 0.58) over the SNOTEL sites for SMAP_SCA and over the DAHRA and SMOSMANIA sites (R 0.51 and R 0.45 for SMAP_Reg and SMOSL3, respectively). The Bias values showed that all products are generally dry, except over RSMN, DAHRA, and Oznet (and FMI for SMAP_SCA). Finally, our analysis provided interesting insights that can be useful to improve the consistency between SMAP and SMOS datasets.

SMOS↗

Behavioral Health Benefits of the ISS Pick-and-Eat Crop Growth System

Summary: We summarize findings related to assessing the pick-and-eat salad-crop productivity and acceptability of the ISS food system as a countermeasure to maintain behavioral health in long-duration spaceflight. BACKGROUND Plants are a potential countermeasure for the stresses of living in space. Caring for plants and eating fresh food have been shown to serve as a psychological benefit for previous astronauts and for others in analogous environments such as Antarctica [1,2]. Gardening can be therapeutic in terrestrial settings [3]. These effects may carry over or be more pronounced in austere environments such as spaceflight. It can reduce stress and increase sensory stimulation and enjoyment [2]. Growing crops may offer astronauts meaningful and engaging work as they care for living things in an austere environment away from Earth’s nature and as they provide sustenance for their crew. We examined the extent to which interacting with plants (e.g., tending to, consuming) was related to behavioral health outcomes in long-duration space missions. METHOD Participants were 27 astronauts that interacted with the plant system VEG-04, VEG-05, and HRF-VEG (VEG-03 I-L, PH-04). In total, there were 106 in-flight observations. Participants completed monthly measures of mood and well-being, enjoyment and time spent performing specific crop growth and consuming the plants, meaningfulness, performance, connections with others and the Earth, desire to work with and eat plants, and experiences with struggling or dying plants. Higher ends of the 7-point Likert scale indicated more positive outcomes, lower ends of the scale were anchored with more negative outcomes, and the scale midpoints indicated neutral positions. Participants selected a specific survey version based on whether they interacted with the plant system(s) or not, and we included only the scores from the crewmembers that participated in any given activity. RESULTS & DISCUSSION Results indicated that participants generally rated tasks related to the plants and crop growth as enjoyable. Consuming the harvested plants and voluntary viewing were the most enjoyable activities. Tending to the plants was reported as moderately enjoyable, indicating BHP benefits from this work task. The BHP impacts of whether the task was engaging, meaningful, supported well-being, or was demanding for a crewmember were generally positive and increased over time. As shown in the Figure, working with plants was reported as more engaging, meaningful, and beneficial to well-being over time, while the demand from the task was moderate to low and consistent over time. Engaging, meaningful, and supporting well-being were strongly, positively correlated with each other, which is consistent with research that suggests engaging and meaningful work can support well-being. Plant activities such as voluntary viewing, watering, harvesting, and consuming, were positively related to task engagement and meaning, and enjoyment and well-being. Findings suggest that working with plants and consuming them can be a behavioral health countermeasure for long-duration spaceflight. REFERENCES [1] Schlacht I, et al. (2020) Impact of plants in isolation: The EDEN-ISS…in Antarctica. In Advances in Human Factors of Transportation, Washington DC. [2] Vessel E, Russo S (2015) Effects of reduced sensory stimulation and…countermeasures…. NASA/TM-2015-218576. [3] Odeh R, Guy C (2017) Gardening for therapeutic people-plant interactions during LDSM. Open Agriculture, 2(1), 1-13. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by the Human Health and Performance Contract NNJ15HK11B, and NASA grant MTL #1075 (PI G.D. Massa).

behavioral health↗

Behavioral Health Benefits of the ISS Pick-and-Eat Crop Growth System

Summary: We summarize findings related to assessing the pick-and-eat salad-crop productivity and acceptability of the ISS food system as a countermeasure to maintain behavioral health in long-duration spaceflight. BACKGROUND Plants are a potential countermeasure for the stresses of living in space. Caring for plants and eating fresh food have been shown to serve as a psychological benefit for previous astronauts and for others in analogous environments such as Antarctica [1,2]. Gardening can be therapeutic in terrestrial settings [3]. These effects may carry over or be more pronounced in austere environments such as spaceflight. It can reduce stress and increase sensory stimulation and enjoyment [2]. Growing crops may offer astronauts meaningful and engaging work as they care for living things in an austere environment away from Earth’s nature and as they provide sustenance for their crew. We examined the extent to which interacting with plants (e.g., tending to, consuming) was related to behavioral health outcomes in long-duration space missions. METHOD Participants were 27 astronauts that interacted with the plant system VEG-04, VEG-05, and HRF-VEG (VEG-03 I-L, PH-04). In total, there were 106 in-flight observations. Participants completed monthly measures of mood and well-being, enjoyment and time spent performing specific crop growth and consuming the plants, meaningfulness, performance, connections with others and the Earth, desire to work with and eat plants, and experiences with struggling or dying plants. Higher ends of the 7-point Likert scale indicated more positive outcomes, lower ends of the scale were anchored with more negative outcomes, and the scale midpoints indicated neutral positions. Participants selected a specific survey version based on whether they interacted with the plant system(s) or not, and we included only the scores from the crewmembers that participated in any given activity. RESULTS & DISCUSSION Results indicated that participants generally rated tasks related to the plants and crop growth as enjoyable. Consuming the harvested plants and voluntary viewing were the most enjoyable activities. Tending to the plants was reported as moderately enjoyable, indicating BHP benefits from this work task. The BHP impacts of whether the task was engaging, meaningful, supported well-being, or was demanding for a crewmember were generally positive and increased over time. As shown in the Figure, working with plants was reported as more engaging, meaningful, and beneficial to well-being over time, while the demand from the task was moderate to low and consistent over time. Engaging, meaningful, and supporting well-being were strongly, positively correlated with each other, which is consistent with research that suggests engaging and meaningful work can support well-being. Plant activities such as voluntary viewing, watering, harvesting, and consuming, were positively related to task engagement and meaning, and enjoyment and well-being. Findings suggest that working with plants and consuming them can be a behavioral health countermeasure for long-duration spaceflight. REFERENCES [1] Schlacht I, et al. (2020) Impact of plants in isolation: The EDEN-ISS…in Antarctica. In Advances in Human Factors of Transportation, Washington DC. [2] Vessel E, Russo S (2015) Effects of reduced sensory stimulation and…countermeasures…. NASA/TM-2015-218576. [3] Odeh R, Guy C (2017) Gardening for therapeutic people-plant interactions during LDSM. Open Agriculture, 2(1), 1-13. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by the Human Health and Performance Contract NNJ15HK11B, and NASA grant MTL #1075 (PI G.D. Massa).

countermeasure↗